Frugal Friday Wrap Up 8/13/21

 

   It has been another week of smoke filled skies here with just a few short and welcomed breaks.  My heart goes out to all the firefighters and those who have lost their homes and livestock, along with some of their pets.  The fires continue to burn all around the Pacific Northwest and with the winds whipping up again, I fear they will spread even more.  Family friends have been out making fire lines hoping to save their towns, homes and crops.  Please join me in sending prayers and good thoughts to them all.

 

   Jeff and I have continued to try to fill our pantry and freezers with food and also stock up on HBA items.  We wanted to try to get ahead of the crowds with all the college students returning and the Covid-19 cases once again rising very quickly in our area.  Each day I have been tracking the number of new cases and we are once again seeing more deaths from it in our area.  We are also trying to get some other things taken care of before prices go up on things like tires.  Yes, I will admit, I am "that person" who tracks things like this.  I want to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be and get the best prices in the process.  Now onto the frugal doings for the week:

   

Weekend:

~Jeff and I stocked up on things at Walmart and the Grocery Outlet.  We got reduced priced meats, Asian noodles, cheesecake (yes a very welcomed treat), fruit, jeans for me at $4 a pair, and some HBA items.

~I packaged up the boneless skinless chicken breasts that I got on sale into individual packages.

~Jeff and I had some cheesecake once we got home from shopping.  I topped mine with berries from our garden and Jeff topped his with some caramel sauce.

~Instead of eating in town on Saturday, I made taco meat and cheese quesadillas for a late lunch.

~Our kitchen sink drain was continuing to give us problems, so Jeff borrowed a 25 foot drain snake from our neighbors.  It is not perfect but it is draining more quickly now.

~I harvested berries, tomatoes, our first cucumber and squash from the garden.

~Jeff was given a Cabela's gift card years ago for Christmas and never used it.  I asked him if I could use it to buy some cast iron skillets.  He said yes.  I got free shipping on my order and after the gift card and taxes my total order came out to $6.02 out of pocket.

~We are selling our large couch to one of Jeff's bosses who is in desperate need of one.  He is paying us $50 for it so I told Jeff to keep the money to use as he wanted since I used his $50 gift card from Cabela's.

~We were able to watch our hanai daughter get married as they streamed the ceremony and the reception on YouTube.  Our twin boys were able to make it down to be with her on her special day and she was thrilled to have her "brothers" there with her.

~I got really stressed out when Jeff tried to fix his car and instead made it undrivable so we are going to now have to tow it and have it fixed.  UGH!  I put on the Hawaiian Slack Guitar Festival on Youtube and listened to that to help calm me down...

(1) 39th Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival "Waikiki Style" - YouTube

~Jeff and I hot tubbed on Sunday night.  It felt so good to finally be able to sit out there without smoke filled skies.

~I made a big pot of broccoli/potato cheese soup.  I had broccoli and some potatoes that needed to be used up ASAP.  I topped mine with homemade croutons...Yum!

~Jeff  watched a Star Wars movie on Sunday night on Disney Plus.

Monday:

~Two more loaves of bread were made.

~I froze some raspberries and some taco meat.

~Seeing a huge pile of yellow squash, I made another squash casserole.

~More tomatoes, squash and another cucumber were harvested, along with some blackberries.

~Jeff and I found several cantaloupes forming on our cantaloupe plants.  YAY!

~Jeff was finally able to go golfing and got a senior discount when he did.  I have been encouraging him to get out and do it for some time now since he really enjoys it and he works so hard for our family.

~Jeff picked a big bucket full of apples off our tree.

~Jeff grilled some bratwurst for us for dinner.

~Jeff also stopped at Winco on his way home to pick up some hot dog buns and said it was a madhouse in there with people filling up their carts like crazy.  I asked him if they were students and he did not think they were.  Panic buying?

Tuesday:

~I harvested squash, swiss chard, tomatoes, beans and blackberries from the garden.

~I had squash casserole for lunch.

~Leftovers were on the menu for dinner.

~We watched some HGTV shows in the evening.

~I was looking for a way to corral all our rice and potato mix packages and found a box that was just the right size to do so.  Free!!!!

Wednesday:

~I found that my Safeway "Just 4 U" app had a $50 off a purchase of $50 or more coupon.  It also had a $4 off a $40 or more coupon.  Apparently they are changing the name of the stores or something and are rewarding their loyal customers.  I downloaded the coupon and am making a list of groceries that are on sale so that I can stretch the $50 as far as it can go!

~Update on what I got for $8.68 after the discounts, coupons, sales and the rest of my gift card at Safeway. And yes, the manager had to manually enter in the $50 off coupon because it was not showing on my card but I could describe what it said Many people are reporting that it disappeared on their cards too after downloading it.  12 pack of cranberry/raspberry sparkling water, 6 pack of paper towels, huge package of TP, 8  pounds of cheese, half gallon of milk, 2 packages of dinner rolls, 2 packages of sausages to grill, 11 large bottles of PowerAde, a package of tortellini, 2 bags of coleslaw mix, 4 pounds of baby peeled carrots, and 3.24 pounds of bananas.

Thursday:

~I made a large tuna pasta salad and added a bag of the coleslaw mix to it...really good!  I love the added crunch and nutrition.  I also added some tomato to mine right before eating it.  Jeff is not a fan of tomatoes, so I add these to my own bowl.

~I froze the remainder of the broccoli/potato cheese soup to use as another meal for both Jeff and I.

~I worked on my points programs.

~It was horribly smoky outside because of all the wildfires so I stayed inside as much as possible until I had to go out and water the gardens in the evening.

Friday:

~Tire prices are reported to be going way up in price soon so Jeff took my car in to get some new tires on it.  We were going to wait a few months more until we read about the continuing price increases.  These increases are due to flooding issues in China, rubber shortages, oil prices rising, increase in shipping rates, etc.. Jeff was able to find a deal on the tires too!  Thank goodness because tires for my car are really expensive. 

Goodyear and Cooper Consumer Tire Prices Are Going Up | Modern Tire Dealer (ratchetandwrench.com)

~One of Jeff's co-workers had their last day at work so they were sending her off with a celebratory and "thank you" lunch.  Jeff did not have to take lunch with him.

~We have been greatly enjoying all the videos that Josh and Lauren are taking of Tate.  He is now crawling and can stand on his own without holding on to anything.  Slow down baby!

~The squash is going nuts!  I harvested 5 more today.  I also got more cherry tomatoes and some blackberries.  I was outside for about 10 minutes and that was all I could handle between the heat and the dangerous air quality.

~I took a bag of squash and tomatoes from our garden over to our hanai sister Shannon.

~Jeff and I had leftovers for dinner and ice cream for dessert.

   Be blessed my friends and I hope you all have a wonderful upcoming week!